'386 Unix Wars

[Jay Ts]

In article <2812 at cirrusl.UUCP>, dhesi%cirrusl at oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
> Everex has a fair implementation (except for one or two
> things that don't work at all) but the worst documentation I have seen
> for an operating system (based on the two manuals included with what I
> bought -- you can buy more manuals, which I suspect will be of the same
> miserable quality).

Nonsense.  AT&T's manual set for System V/386 r3.2 (published by Prentice
Hall) work fine for ESIX.  You can order them from you local bookstore.

I *like* working it this way; my clients don't have to shell out extra
bucks for manuals they won't even open, and if they or I want to obtain extra
copies of the manuals, we can get them with no hassles, and in any quantity
we want.  I am running ISC, and one of my clients is running ESIX.  They
have more documentation than they want to see, and I have all the documentation
I want/need.

Whereas ISC and SCO have "enhanced" (read: added bugs to :-) AT&T UNIX,
ESIX has left AT&T's code relatively alone (read: left the bugs in :-).

Judging from postings in this newsgroup, ESIX has fewer bugs or other
problems than ISC 2.2 or SCO UNIX.  In working with ESIX, so far I haven't
run into any problems that I couldn't work around or solve either on my
own or with the help of ESIX tech support.  They are responsive *and*
helpful both over the phone and by email.

> For good documentation and powerful features, you have no choice but to
> try to find a BSD derivative (anything except Ultrix).

> Right now I use
> SunOS at work and find it to be relatively stable and moderately well
> documented.

My ESIX client is an office automation environment.  They don't need a
GUI or networking.  Their 386 ESIX system supports 7 users and cost them
about $5000 TOTAL, including application software.  For their needs, any
machine running a BSD-derivative (i.e., Sun, Silicon Graphics) would be a
waste of money.

> So, although the picture looks pretty bleak right now for UNIX on the
> 386, things should improve when SVR4 stabilizes (and, I hope, becomes
> cheaper).

I am *scared* of SVR4!!  When/if my clients have to upgrade, they will have
to add at least 4 Mb of memory and probably suffer a performance degradation
as well.  (Someone please tell me this isn't really true!)  And it won't
markedly improve the functioning of their existing software, either.

I think you've just been spoiled by using SunOS :-)

				Jay Ts
				Metran Technology
				uunet!pdn!tscs!metran!jay